schnauzers.ws

The climb up from the bottom of the DH was a bit more taxing.  It's bad enough putting everything into getting up a hill with one speed, but dealing with the big loose rocks, babyheads, and water bars really put my thighs to the test.  At the top we wondered what the hell we were doing by putting ourselves though this first thing in the morning.  It's all good.

 We did a good portion of the western side of the park finishing the dirt with a great big grin.

Then it was on to watch the race, which as usual happened on a beautiful sunny day.  

First we stopped at the bottom of the Wiss damn to watch the racers enter Manyunk.

Then to my favorite spot under the train tracks.  This is where the course goes over cobblestones.  Some great wipe-outs happen here, but not this time.

Here are the girls rounding the corner and heading up the wall.

We then make our way up the wall to watch the struggle.  Known as one of the hardest climbs in US road racing, they do the wall 11 times!

Then the downhill.

We finished up by riding over to the art museum to check out the exhibits and bike flea market.  The only thing of value there were the models in the Toyota racing booth wearing the lycra uniforms which were slightly too small.

It was a fun day with over 35 miles of riding both dirt and road.  A great way to say good-bye to Philadelphia's local trail and so long to my friend Dino.  One of the few who stuck with me after the JAR club incident.  In other words, a true friend.